


Just friends (To heart)

by souju



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Be Careful What You Wish For, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gay For You, How Do I Tag, M/M, Nail Polish, Swing Set, True Love, Waiting, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22681144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/souju/pseuds/souju
Summary: When love is true but the relationship is fake.(the angst is not that deep, don't worry lol)
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung
Comments: 3
Kudos: 126





	Just friends (To heart)

"I'm not single." San blurts out without thinking this through. 

The girl that just confessed to him stares at him suspiciously. With a good reason, high school couples are usually very PDA, you just can't avoid knowledge of who's with who. Therefore San never kissed anybody publicly (or not at all to be precise). 

"Come on, are you serious?" The girl asks with a whiny undertone in her voice. She clearly wants some harder evidence or she won't give up.

"Wooyoung!" And again with not thinking things through before speaking them into existence, good job San.

"Huh?" She squints her eyes in disbelief.

"Yes." San just digs his own grave and he knows it somewhere deep in his heart. "He's my boyfriend." His brain is kind of screaming at him what is he doing. For real, he's just making life harder for himself. But no going back now.

"If you say so..." She mutters, not really convinced but she doesn't want to be rude to negate someone's relationship. It's not that unbelievable either, San and Wooyoung are always seen together. In a platonic way, but who knows what happens behind closed doors, she shrugs. She took her chances, too bad.

San exhales in relief when she leaves not questioning it any further. He's honestly taken aback (not because of his own stupid actions) because no one really asked him out before. This is the last year of high school and San ponders whether he had some glow up (he had, but he's very unaware). He decides against it, he sees no difference between his past self and the current one. He's still equally shy with strangers and loud with closest friends. Friends, which includes Wooyoung. Oh god, what did he do? This girl surely won't keep the information to herself. And most importantly it's a blatant lie! San starts panicking, he needs to find Wooyoung and beg for forgiveness. 

He finds Wooyoung quite easily, he's eating lunch with Yeosang. San takes a few deep breaths. It's fine (it's not), he tells himself.

"Hey, fellow companions!" He greets them and it's already suspicious. Who talks like that? Definitely not San, so they both notice something is wrong immediately.

"What's going on?" Yeosang raises his eyebrow, Wooyoung still rather focuses on munching his sandwich. 

"I may or may not have done something stupid." San avoids looking them in the eyes.

"That's very vague. And not that unusual of you. So please elaborate." Yeosang says and San wishes he had the power to just disappear. Anything to just not explain himself.

"Okay... So a girl confessed to me." San gulps starting from the beginning. That finally makes Wooyoung stop eating, he's interested now, his eyes travel to San who's possibly dying from the shame if his burning cheeks are any indication. 

"Go on?" Yeosang urges him, the lunch break will end soon.

"Please, don't kill me." San murmurs, he doesn't really want to be heard. That makes both Yeosang and Wooyoung squints their eyes waiting for more explanations. "I told her I'm already dating someone."

"Huh? But you're not." Wooyoung scrunches his face in confusion. 

"I'm pretty sure that's the point," Yeosang interjects, he has a look on his face like he knows where this is going.

"Yeah... So I kind of said that... Uh..." San really doesn't want to say it out loud, not again. "You." He chokes out in a whisper but they both hear him clearly enough, unfortunately for San.

"I don't get it." Wooyoung blinks his eyes trying hard to understand.

On the other hand, Yeosang rolls his eyes. "You." He turns to Wooyoung. "He said he's dating you." 

"He- What now?" Wooyoung freezes and then slowly turns to face San. It's straight out from the horror movie. San is terrified. 

"I'm sorry!" He kind of yells with desperation, is this how he dies? Quite possible. "I wasn't thinking-"

"Evidently." Wooyoung deadpans, his voice freezing the blood in San's veins. "You just told a random girl that you're dating a guy. Not even made-up guy, but your friend. Me. Me who's not even gay. Do you realize the scale of damage you just did by this one lie?" Wooyoung's voice is really ice cold and even Yeosang flinches because of that. "People will think that not only I'm taken but also gay. San. Do you have a death wish?" He ends up with slowly growing, maniacal, fake grin. It's scary as hell, San wants to run away, to be honest. But it's his fault, Wooyoung is right, the damage is bigger than he previously thought. 

"I'm so sorry! Oh god, please forgive me!" San stutters out and falls to his knees. It's a bit dramatic, but making Wooyoung upset is the last thing he ever wanted. 

"Wait! Stop that!" Wooyoung hisses because San is still on his knees on the ground in front of them. "Idiot!" He kicks him on the arm without applying much force. "Get up, I'm not that mad." He is, but San making a scene in public place is even worse. Kind of.

"Lies." San whines but slowly gets up. His lips are wavering, eyes shiny as he may cry. 

"Hey, calm down. I said I won't murder you. Yet." He adds the last word under his breath. 

"I'm so, very, absolutely sorry," San mutters and Wooyoung huffs.

"I noticed. But it's still the dumbest thing you ever did." 

"Is it though?" Yeosang speaks up after watching things unfold in front of him. Wooyoung glares at him and he just shrugs. "I mean it's not that bad. You're exaggerating. You're acting like you just lost all chances with girls. Chances that you didn't have in the first place."

"Asshole." Wooyoung kicks him in the shin, Yeosang groans and massages his leg but the grin is still apparent on his face. "Hold on." Wooyoung turns back his attention to San. "Why did you lied in the first place? Was she like really ugly or..?"

"No, I had no idea how to reject her and I just said things without thinking... She was pretty I guess. But I panicked."

"For god's sake-"

"But no- I wouldn't accept her confession anyway. I'm not scared of strangers but... The idea of a relationship with someone I don't know is scary." San admits sheepishly. He just doesn't like getting to know new people. That first phase of meeting someone is horrifying.

"You'll stay single forever." Wooyoung deadpans at his ridiculous friend. 

"Technically San already has a boyfriend-" Yeosang tries to say it without chuckling but he fails miserably. Wooyoung sends him a deathly glare and San looks like a kicked puppy.

"It's not funny! It's tragic! San, you have to undo it."

"Like... tell her the truth? That would make me a liar." San pouts.

"Which you are!" Wooyoung groans, but his friend is looking so sad and so remorseful that he ends up huffing again. "Whatever."

"Just fake it till you make it." Yeosang shrugs, not that impressed by the whole thing. 

"Huh?" Both San and Wooyoung stare at him confused.

"This is our last semester of high school. So why not just pretend that you are indeed together? It's not that-" Unbelievable, he wants to say but decides against it worrying for his life. "Anyway. Hear me out, okay. It's not that long period of time. That girl would feel awful if she'd find out it was a lie, San would be known as a liar. The outcome is worse than now, don't you agree?"

"Uh..." Wooyoung is not convinced.

"Let's be real here, Wooyoung you wouldn't get a girlfriend here anyway."

"Hey!"

"In college, nobody will know you or San or your 'relationship'. Clean slate. See? It'll be so soon and you'll be able to date any girl you wish. Just fake it for these next two months."

Okay, so maybe it does make some sense, Wooyoung has to admit. He looks at San to check what he's thinking. Well, San is staring into space, his brain visibly getting fried trying to process everything. Wooyoung sighs, no use of him. "Fine. I guess you're right."

"Huh?" That pulls San out of his mind. "Really?"

"It's your fault, idiot." Wooyoung huffs, still very much annoyed. "But I guess two months are possible to survive. Next time please think of your words." 

"Next time?" San's eyes widen. He prays he gets no more confessions in his lifetime. It's not his cup of tea, he just wants peace and Wooyoung. Hanging out with Wooyoung, that's what he meant. Obviously. 

That's how San gets into his first relationship. Fake one but still. He finds out that it's not really anything different than it was before. Except for Yeosang's occasional teasing that results in Wooyoung's scary glares. 

Like a week later though San gets a note on the piece of paper in one of the classes.

'Are you really dating Wooyoung?' 

San whips his head around to find some girl looking back at him expectantly, she also kind of blushes. He decides to just respond with a 'why'. 

'I don't know, you two just don't seem to be together like that' 

Okay, she has a point. Maybe acting like usually is not very convincing. Also, why is suddenly so many girls talking to San? This semester is weird. He shakes his head and writes back to her that he is indeed Wooyoung's boyfriend. Which looks odd wrote down on a paper. Like it's sealing the deal, he almost shudders because of the thought. Also, his heart is fluttering weirdly and he's sure it's not healthy. He has no idea why it's happening though.

"There are some suspicions." He tells Wooyoung and Yeosang after classes. 

"Well, not surprising. You should like at least hold hands." 

"The what?" Wooyoung replies his brain malfunctioning at the mere idea. 

Yeosang rolls his eyes. "Hands. Holding. It'll be more convincing." 

"Right." San deadpans, not really registering what they're talking about. He feels weird recently. Especially when it has something to do with Wooyoung. 

"Whatever!" Wooyoung huffs annoyed and then suddenly catches San's hand in his own. San flinches as it burns but Wooyoung holds it firmly and San can't do anything about it. So they're just walking home holding hands. He's sure Yeosang whispered something sounding like 'tsundere' at Wooyoung, with a sly grin on his face. But San is too dumbfounded to speak, he just accepts his fate. It's not that uncomfortable anyway. Actually, to be completely honest it's not bad at all. Wooyoung's hand fits perfectly with his own. And he keeps thinking the whole day. And then maybe even half of the night. The realization hits him like a truck.

"Oh fuck." He whispers destroying the silence of the night in his room. Needless to say, he doesn't get much sleep that night. 

He has few phases he's going through. The first day is mostly 'no no no'. The second day is him telling himself 'I feel fine' over and over again whenever he looks at Wooyoung. And the third day his mind is just going 'I like you I like you I like you'. Thankfully he doesn't say it out loud.

Ridiculous how it took fake-dating for San to realize his true feelings for his best friend. Ridiculous and irritating. It's not like he can do anything about it.

Butterflies are casually throwing a party every time Wooyoung looks at him. San's not sure his heart can take it. To make it worse Yeosang gives him somewhat meaningful looks every now and then. And San thinks it's possible that Yeosang knew even before he knew what he feels. Great. But Yeosang is a good friend, he wouldn't tell Wooyoung. At least that.

"Ugh, that's gross," Wooyoung mutters one day, nothing unusual happening. They're just walking around the hallways holding hands like the past weeks. It became somewhat natural to them. "Your palm is getting really sweaty." Wooyoung grimaces. 

"Ah, sorry." San stutters, it's not like he can control that. But it still stings a bit when Wooyoung snatches his hand away rubbing it on his pants muttering how much he hates holding hands.

San doesn't touch him anymore that day. These past weeks Wooyoung was very vocal about how much this whole ordeal is annoying and how San should learn to not blurt out dumb things that lead to such situations. San can't lie, it's not nice to hear it every single day. But he also understands Wooyoung. They're just friends and San did something that makes Wooyoung very mad and uncomfortable. 

It's also not pleasurable for San to hear Wooyoung babbling about pretty girls. That's nothing new, Wooyoung always talked about it for past years. But now San feels his heart clenching painfully. It's terrible, he never knew being in love could hurt so much. Maybe he would be able to get over it if he knew earlier. But he kind of found out way too late. When he was already very deeply in love.

But it's fine, everything will be alright. San just has to keep on smiling. Even if he knows Wooyoung's heart doesn't beat harder whenever they hold hands. San is in this alone.

They're just friends, even if San doesn't want to be... 

"What are you thinking about?" Wooyoung asks raising his eyebrow, his friend being oddly quiet today. 

They're sitting on the swings behind Wooyoung's house and it's getting late, the sun already hiding.

"It's nothing," San mutters looking at his feet. He knows it's not believable, Wooyoung knows him perfectly. 

"Uh-huh, right." Wooyoung sighs. "You could at least try to convince me." 

"What's the point?" San glances at him with a slight frown.

Wooyoung sighs again. "I don't know. Let's go inside." He stands up from the swing waiting for San to do the same.

"Why?"

"Because I can't look at you moping around. Let's watch some horror, it'll cheer you up."

"Great logic." San snorts, but it's true. And only the idea makes him feel better. Well, Wooyoung is a good friend. Too bad San apparently can't be satisfied with that. 

They go straight to Wooyoung's room in which San flops on the bed, waiting for Wooyoung to put on some movie.

Only after a few minutes, San hears some movie beginning and then the bed dips under anther weight applied onto it. San decides to turn on his back and actually pretend to be alive. He doesn't expect to be suddenly tackled though. Wooyoung has a death grip on him and San struggles to breathe. 

"What are you doing?" He manages to choke out, trying to free himself.

"I'm cuddling you. I'm your boyfriend so I'm entitled to do it, don't you think?" Wooyoung chuckles at San's apparent misery.

"Thanks, but you don't have to pretend now!" San finally frees himself from the grip and gulps much-needed air.

"Yeah, but honestly though... Something's wrong and you don't have to tell me. But I can hug you and I will." Wooyoung says as a threat but it's clear his intentions are good-hearted. And hug is exactly what he does. Not deathly like before. Now he's gentle as he lies comfortably against a pillow next to San, a bit too close than normally. In addition, he wraps his arm around San's own arm. He hums as he settles, visibly comfortable and he starts to watch the movie.

San tries to follow and also focuses on the movie, but obviously he struggles with that a little bit. Being so close to his love interest is not easy to handle. After a few minutes, his eyes stray away from the tv and land on Wooyoung. His legs and then his feet. San's heart skips a beat from sudden revelation. Wooyoung took off his socks before laying on the bed but that's not surprising. What's quite shocking though are his toenails painted black. 

San malfunctions, he would never think he would see something like that in his entire life. Nail polish on Wooyoung, and it looks amazing. Enticing even, San is mesmerized so he just keeps staring without paying attention to anything else.

Until Wooyoung clears his throat. "What?" He asks with slight confusion and maybe a bit of hesitation. "You're not watching the movie." He adds.

"O-oh." Busted. "Your toes." He finds himself blurting out, yet again. That thing that Wooyoung advised him about thinking before speaking? Yeah didn't think so. San is incapable of that. 

"Don't laugh." Wooyoung frowns, but that's the last thing San would do.

"N-no, I wasn't going to. I was just surprised." Very positively, he adds in his mind. 

"Okay," Wooyoung replies hesitantly, not really convinced.

So San decides to add something which isn't thought through at all as usual. "It looks pretty." Great, way to make things weird between two guy friends. 

"Really? It wasn't meant for anybody to see beside myself..." 

San hums acknowledging. "Well, too bad. I think it looks very nice. You should paint your fingernails too." San says hoping he isn't crossing any lines. He's not entirely sure what lines are there. 

"Okay," Wooyoung says and they're back to watching the movie as nothing happened. Well, maybe nothing much but for San, it's a lot to take in. 

He leaves when the movie ends and realizes that Wooyoung is already asleep. He looks adorable, San has a hard time controlling his urges to smooch him. But that's not legal so he tells himself to have some morality and he only stares at him for few seconds before quietly leaving. Despite his craving heart, he had a really good time. Wooyoung is so amazing (which is not helping San's case at all). 

Next day San gets a heart-attack because apparently, Wooyoung took his mild suggestion and actually painted his nails. It looks amazing, who would've thought? It's just stupid black nails. On Wooyoung. Yeah, okay. San has the right to be freaking out. Of course, Yeosang is not helpful and he only giggles at San's despair. 

But except that nothing really happens the whole week. It's not like San waits for something to happen (he kinda does) but the stable state of nothingness is mildly infuriating. However, Wooyoung stopped complaining that much about holding hands, even though it's almost summer so now both of their hands are more clammy than usual. That's the only questionable thing that happens. But San shrugs the thought, maybe Wooyoung simply got tired of complaining every day. That'd be understandable. 

"It's only one week before the holidays begin," Wooyoung says abstinently as he lightly swings on the swing. 

San hums, it's true. "You must be happy."

"Huh?" Wooyoung looks at him in clear confusion.

"You know. The whole thing ends in a week. Our relationship." San tries hard to sound indifferent which he's surprised to actually succeed. He adds a chuckle, which again doesn't sound fake, he's honestly surprised at his good acting. "I'm sorry it took so long. You're probably really tired of it." San huffs kind of annoyed, he just hopes Wooyoung isn't mad at him anymore. 

Wooyoung remains silent with a frown on his face. Almost like he wants to say something but he doesn't. 

Instead, they part ways and both of them are kind of down. 

Two days before graduation and San is confronted by some girls. It happens suddenly, out of nowhere. He gulps feeling anxiety feeling his body.

"Okay, it's time, to tell the truth. You lied, didn't you?" One of the girls says accusingly. There's like six of them, it's honestly intimidating. 

"Uh, no. Of course not-" But he can't even finish. He doesn't even sound confident to his own ears.

"Right." The girl snorts rolling her eyes for a good measure. "That was a pretty shitty lie, you know. To reject her like that, you should be ashamed." She looks a bit mad. San has no idea how to get out of this situation- 

"No. Actually you should be fucking ashamed of negating someone's relationship like that." San hears a very familiar, angry voice. It's Wooyoung. His savior apparently, San almost exhales with relief.

The girls seem taken aback by the sudden appearance of very furious looking Wooyoung. 

One of them quickly regains her composure though. She scoffs. "Stop that crap, you were playing along just for the fun of it-" She is interrupted by Wooyoung abruptly grabbing San's collar and pressing their lips together. If the girls are startled then San is completely dumbstruck. Wooyoung pulls away and looks at the girls with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Do you wanna add something? If not please leave me and my boyfriend alone, thanks." Wooyoung talks like the meanest bitch (which he kinda is sometimes). His smirk doesn't disappear as he watches the girls scrambling away from them with some angry remarks under their breaths. 

San is still speechless after they're left alone. He wished for something like that to happen for weeks. And now he has no idea how to act. What even was that? Wooyoung should be disgusted to kiss a dude. He wasn't even into holding hands. Did he just kiss him so sharply to get rid of the girls bothering San? The utter confusion must be very visible on San's face because when Wooyoung looks at him his smirk falls and he looks sheepish.

"Sorry about that." 

San isn't able to respond coherently, he just stares.

"Are you mad?" Wooyoung asks softly, not knowing how to handle the current situation.

"Mad? No? I'm... puzzled."

"Ah, I wanted to help," Wooyoung says looking more abashed with passing seconds. And then he just flees. Leaving San before he can speak up. Well, that went not so good.

San doesn't see him at school that day. Maybe Wooyoung went home, that's very plausible. 

But this matter actually needs to be explained. Their friendship can't get damaged because of something like that, San won't let it happen. So he decides in the middle of the night to just go over to Wooyoung's house.

It's probably suspicious how he jumps over the fence in the backyard. He hears a shriek and he himself gets scared so much that he falls back on his butt.

"What the hell?!" Wooyoung yells, trying to regain normal breathing. "You fucking scared me."

"Why are you sitting on the swing in the middle of the night!" San yells back accusingly and he stands up.

"Why are you here?" Wooyoung asks already calmed down a bit as San sits on the swing next to him.

"You left. Don't do that again." San sighs, he was afraid that things will be weird between them but it seems fairly normal, thankfully. 

"... you mean leaving you alone suddenly? Or kissing you out of nowhere suddenly?" Wooyoung asks quietly, getting embarrassed at thought of it again. 

"Oh. Both." Definitely both. 

"I said I'm sorry. Apparently not thinking things through is contagious." Wooyoung jokes bitterly and San snorts at that.

"Yeah. It's fine." He adds it's not like he's mad at him anyway. "I just never thought my first kiss would go like that."

"Oh, it was your- Damn, I'm really sorry." Wooyoung murmurs looking at his feet, even though it's so dark he can't clearly see them.

"It's fine." San repeats and sighs. "I just wished it would happen differently, like you know, right now the circumstances are better- And I'm not thinking again." He stops himself before it gets too embarrassing, or is it too late? 

Wooyoung gets up from the swing suddenly. "I can do that." He says quietly but determined. 

"Huh?"

Wooyoung grabs San's face in his palms and places a soft, warm kiss on his lips. After second thought he deepens the kiss to make it more memorable.

"Is that good enough for a first kiss?" He pulls away asking like it's a perfectly normal thing to do.

"It wasn't-"

"We can just forget about that one. It's the official one, okay?"

"Okay." San nods dumbly, Wooyoung's palms are still on his cheeks. "What are you doing though?" He frowns.

"Yeosang may or may not spilled the beans..." Wooyoung bites his lip and before San can start panic he adds. "Don't worry. If that's not clear enough... I really like you, San."

"Huh?"

"I wanna be your boyfriend for real." 

"What? I wanted to say I like you for so long and you just..." San huffs but quickly forgives him when Wooyoung giggles sweetly. San is whipped. "Fine. Whatever." 

"You know, even if Yeosang informed me about it I had my suspicions before."

"How?"

"San, your password is my birthday." 

"... Friends do that." San pouts trying to defend himself but it only makes Wooyoung giggle again.

"I'm pretty sure they don't. So I just needed confirmation, but then you started acting like you don't enjoy spending time together. And I got confused."

"You got confused? I thought you liked girls!"

"I do." Wooyoung nods but seeing San's frown he adds with a grin. "But I like you more."

"Sweet talker," San mutters quietly but Wooyoung silences him with another kiss. This time San actually reciprocates. They kind of get too much into it and San loses his balance on the swing which results in him falling back on the ground. Again. His legs still on the swing as he gets trapped. Obviously Wooyoung doesn't help him, instead, he laughs at him until his stomach hurts.

San frees himself somehow after struggling for a minute and he just lies on the ground looking at the sky until Wooyoung comes into the view leaning over him.

"Are you planning on staying there the whole night?" 

"Maybe. Why?"

Wooyoung shrugs. "I thought we could go to my room, but if you prefer to lay on the grass instead of my bed then-"

"No. I'm getting up." San basically jumps to his feet, Wooyoung giggles at him with eyes full of fondness. 

They fall asleep cuddling and this time San doesn't leave. He can't be happier waking up next to Wooyung in the morning.


End file.
